A Practical Application

By Bella Goss ’23

My time in the Houghton Equestrian Program was extremely valuable and taught me many of the skills I needed to perform well in my current role as Horsemanship Director of the Camp Hebron Horsemanship program. Camp Hebron is a camp and retreat center whose goal is to connect people with God, nature, and each other. Meadowview Stables operates in Camp Hebron, offering overnight horse camp in the summer, riding lessons, trail rides, school field trips, and other activities. We are excited to begin expanding our services to host fun shows, clinics, and some other events throughout the year.

While I am not jumping 3’ courses on performance horses—like I did at Houghton—I am applying many of the practical managerial, pedagogical and people skills I gained through the equestrian program.

One class that has been particularly helpful was Equine Facility Management (EFM), which I took in my sophomore year with Larissa (Strapello ’08) Ries. I learned how to manage all the ins and outs of an equine program, including things like developing schedules, pasture management, and feed management. Thanks to EFM, I was able to implement a lot more structure in my program when I started my job.

Along with my management role, I spend a lot of time teaching. My equine pedagogy class and attaining my Certified Horsemanship Association (CHA) certification at Houghton with Kathie (Christensen ‘98) Hilsher helped prepare me for this part of my job. Camp Hebron operates under the CHA guidelines, so it was a very easy transition for me to begin a lesson program here and apply the many teaching skills I gained at Houghton. I also served as a teaching assistant (TA) for some of the riding classes, including equine pedagogy, which grew my confidence in teaching people how to ride horses.

I now have students from beginner up to learning how to jump cross-rails at Camp Hebron! Teaching has been one of my favorite skills to have learned from Houghton and I continue to use in my work here. It is so rewarding to see the young kids I work with in the summer go from timid and afraid to touch a horse to excited to learn new skills with their equine partner by the end of a camp week.

On top of all the equestrian skills I learned in Houghton’s program, I also took many business and management classes as a part of my degree that have helped me to confidently make decisions for the business that I run now. With Professor Alex Wright ’07, I developed my critical thinking and problem-solving skills, especially when he challenged us with real-life applications of the things we were learning. I’ve discovered that learning how to manage staff and relations with the people you work with is just as important as learning to manage the horses. Houghton’s Equestrian Program understands that and has that covered!

Bella Goss ’23 is the Horsemanship Director at Camp Hebron in Halifax, Pennsylvania. She holds a dual degree in Equine Studies and Recreation Equine Management.